Shanghai Port midfielder Oscar has revealed that talks with Barcelona are still ongoing amid recent reports that the Catalans could bring the Brazilian back to Europe.
Oscar has been playing his club football in the Chinese Super League since leaving Chelsea in a shock big money transfer in 2017. Now 30, he has admitted that talks with Barcelona have taken place, although the club’s financial situation has so far stopped things from progressing.
Barça have been forced to get creative with their personnel decisions over the last couple of years because of the dire financial pressure the club has been under. That included re-signing veteran former star Dani Alves and even handing a new long-term contract to out of favour defender Samuel Umtiti because the wage shift freed up the budget to register new signing Ferran Torres.
Barça were forced to lose Lionel Messi last year because there wasn’t a sufficient salary budget to allow them to register a new contract that had been agreed and the club has generally been at the limit, with every new arrival seemingly only possible because of reshuffling existing players.
“The talks with FC Barcelona have not ended, we have to talk about several things. They now have a problem registering players, as happened with Dani Alves,” Oscar has explained during a conversation with noted Brazilian journalist Marcelo Bechler.
Mundo Deportivo has reported that Oscar is ‘committed’ to compromising if it smooths his path to becoming a Barcelona player. That could include lowering any salary demands and even considering a deal similar to the aforementioned Alves, whose wages are mostly incentive-based.
However, the club are said not to consider Oscar a ‘priority’ target this month given the financial constraints and the existing midfielders in the squad.
For more from Jamie Spencer, follow him on Twitter and Facebook!
This article was originally published on 90min as Oscar confirms talks are ongoing with Barcelona.
Source: www.90min.com